Mark 4: Participating in Theological Praxis

In October of 2022, we began our “Queer Theology” series on the campus of the University of New Mexico. This initial Friday, we invited 3 Queer Theology leaders to be on a public panel in an open space in the Student Union Building of UNM. For one hour I moderated a discussion among religious leaders around the topic of Queer Theology. Panel participants were encouraged to use their personal perspectives and experiences of living out Queer Theology to engage in the conversation. Participants were asked a series of open-ended questions and were encouraged to engage with each other and ask each other questions as well. 

 

I learned through this experience that engaging in a public event around Queer Theology is an effective way to learn from the wisdom of Queer Religious Leaders and their Allies. However, upon reflection, I understood that this form of “public theology” was actually “public chaplaincy”. After a few days of processing our event, I realized that the questions I formulated for the event drew directly from the compassion approach to spiritual care in which we are called to “listen, learn, love, and liberate”. One of the main intentions of holding this type of discussion in public is to provide students and community members with non-traditional theological stances that they might not know exist. The theological concern overall is the concern for God’s beloved children who either don’t know that God loves them or have been told otherwise.  

 

The realization that our Queer Theology series is a form of public chaplaincy is very exciting to me. In my thesis for my Master of Theology, I argued that Theology must be more than just academics. My thesis incorporated prayer, liturgy, music, and reflection into my theological stance. In the same way, our “Queer Theology” series incorporated prayer, personal insight, personal experience, and academics into an experiential-theological-spiritual care event. It was not my conscious intention to develop the event in this way, it is simply my personality. It’s exciting to bring my authentic style to the table and experience glimpses of the Beloved Community.